Car-holding mechanism



Aug. 34, w23. lAUU@ G. N. slMPsoN ET Al.

CAR HOLDING MECHANI SM Filed Aug. 5. 1921 2 Sheeis-Sheet l l Aug. M, B923.

G. N. SIMPSON E'T AL CAR HOLDING MECHANI SM Filed Aug. 5. 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 f www SAW w? MAW 5%,

Patented Aug. 14, 1923.

ik Y A can-Honmne Mnoranrslu.

Application filed August 5, 1921. Serial No. 489,943,

To aZZ iwwm z't may concern:

Be it known that we, GEORGE N. SIMPSON and ARTHUR M. SiMPsoN, citizens ot the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement 1n Car-Holding Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

Our invent-ion relates to improvements in oar holding mechanism. 1t is especially adapted for use in connection with any apparatus in which a car of any kind is dumped by causing it to be inverted or partly inverted; and is so designed as to hold a car iirmly clamped on the rails during the dumping operation. lVe have shown the invention in use on a rot-ary dump comprising a substantially cylindrical cage rotatably mounted and adapted to be rotated to dump a car in position inside of the cage. lt is obvious, however, -that without detracting from the spirit of our invention, the same mechanism or similar mechanism embodying the principles of our invention may be used in connection with any kind of dumping apparatus to hold a car on the rails during the dumping operation. The advantages and objects of our invention will appear as we proceed with our specification.

In that form of device embodying the 4features of our invention shown in the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a view in side elevation of a rotary dump, with a part broken away, and having our car holding mechanism arranged thereon, Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the dump shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view on an enlarged scale of one of the hooks used in connection with the holding down mechanism, and Fig. et is a view taken as indicated by the line 4 of Fig. 3.

As'shown in the drawings A indicates in general a substantially cylindrical cage hav- Ving ring members 10 at its ends which are suitably connected and braced by struts, braces and framing 11 in any suitable manner in order to make a rigid structure. The rings V10 are supported on rollers 12, and suitable flanges are provided to prevent endwise displacement. In this manner the entire cageiA is supported by the rollers 12 and rotatably mounted. The center of the cage A is sufliciently free from bracing and the like in order to permit a car such as is indicated by 13 to enter the cage. The car 13 rests onthe rails 14 supported in the cage on ties 15, which are connected together in any suitable manner, and supported on rollers 16 adapted to roll on transversely arranged sections of traer 17. This arrangement permits the track 141 a certain amount of sideways movement in the cage A, in the manner or" a rolling platen. At o-ne end of the rotatable cage A is arranged a stationary receiving track and at the other end a stationary discharge track, and having their rails lying in alinement with the rails 14 in the cage, when the cage is in its normal upright position, so that the car, such as is represented by 13, can be run from the stationary receiving track into the cage, then dumped Vby causing rotation of the caffe and then run out of the cage onto the stationary discharge track, after the cage has again resumed its normal upright position. Any ordinary means may be used for rotating the cage, The construction orl the cage itself, the means for and manner et rotating it and the particular construct-ion ofthe rolling platen form no part of the present invent-ion, and are not shown in detail in this specification. They may be oil any desired construction. `rEhe rolling platen construction referred to, is well known in the art in connection with rotary dumps of the kind disclosed in this specification. struction is for the purpose ot permitting a slight' sideways movement of the car at the start of the rotation oii the cage, so that the body of the car will rest firmly against one side of the cage. The cars adapted to be dumped by the kind or' cage shown ordinarily vary in width and consequently the space in the cage to accommodate the car is Ymade somewhat wider than the average car,

in order to permit the car to freely enter. The rolling platen, or construction permitting the sideways movement oit the track in the cage, is provided so that as soon as the dump starts to rotate the car will move over to one side of the space in the cage and rest against such side.

Means are also provided for holding the car 13 irmly down on the rails 111 during the dumping operation. l This holding down mechanism forms the subject matter of our present invention and will be described more in detail.

The holding down mechanism comprises a series of bars or hooks 19 proj ecting over the upper edge of the car body on each side oi the cage. Since all of the hooks 19 are This consimilarly arranged and mounted, we will describe in detail the construction and operation of but one. The hook 19 projects at right angles trom a vertically arranged. casting 20, sildably mounted in a vertical slide 21 at the side of the cage. The casting 2O and hook 19 mounted thereon are adapted to be pulled downwardly in the slide 21 by the rod 23. The downward movement of the rod 23 is eieeted in the following manner. The lower end ot the rod 23 is threaded as indicated by 2a and has mounted thereon a gear wheel 25 which in turn is housed in a housing 26 to prevent vertical movement thereof. The rod 23 is prevented trom rotating by any suitable means such as a square collar 27 pinned onto the rod 23 by means ot a pin 2S and prevented from rotating by the webs 29 forming a part ot' the casting 20. Although the collar 27 is prevented :trom rotating in the casting 20, it nevertheless is tree to slide upwardly and downwardly in the space between the two webs 29. It is obvious that rotation oiq the gear wheel 25 in one direction will cause downward movement ot the rod and rotation inthe opposite direction will cause upward movement. Rotation oit' the gear wheel 2 5 is effected by av worm 30 meshing therewith and mounted on a shaft 31. There are two shafts 31 one on each side of the cage to operate all the hooks 19 on the corresponding side. Rotation to each ot the shafts 31` may be given in any desired manner in order to cause the required movement of the hooks on that side. i lille have shown one ot the shafts 31 adapted to be rotated by a small motor l() connected by a belt /11 to the eountershatt 42 which has on its end a pinion 13 meshing with a pinion 411 ou the end ot the shaft 31.

Vle will now describe in detail the manner ot connectingl the rod 23 to the casting 20. The casting 2O is 'formed with horizontal webs 50, 51 and 52 as shown in Fig. 4: oi the drawings, through which webs holes are made to act as guides for the rod 23 which extends upwardly through such holes. Mounted on the rod 23 just below the web 5() is the square collar 27 described above. Mounted on the rod 23 below the collar 27 is a relatively light spiral spring 55. Below the spiral spring 55 is a. sliding collar 56 on the rod 23, having a sleeve 57 extending upwardly and surrounding the spring. Below the collar 56 and above the web 51 is a relatively heavy spiral spring on the rod 23. A shoulder G0 is formed in the casting 2O just above the collar 56 and projects inwardly enough to prevent movement of said collar 56 upwardly beyond such shoulder. The sleeve 57 however, is suticiently small to pass the shoulder, and eX- tends upwardly beyond the same. Reiterence to Fig. l1 of the drawings shows that by this construction, the rod 2.3 is permitted a certain amount of downward motion with respect to the casting 20, to compress the springs V55 and 59. ln other-words, it the hook 19 and casting 2O are prevented from moving downwardly, and a downward pull is exerted on the rod 23, the springs 55 and 59 will be compressed. 1t is obvious also that since the spring 55 is relatively lighter than the spring 59, such spring 55 will' be compressed first until the collar 27 engages the upper end of the sleeve 57, whereupon further downward movement of the r'od 23 andthe collar 27 will cause downward movement of the sleeve 57 and collar 56 to cornpress the spring 59.

The purpose ot this spring connection between the hook 19 and the rod 23, is to permit a certain amount of relative movement between the hook 19 and the rod 23. rllhe eperation is as follows. The car 13 is mounted on springs interposed between the ear body and trucks in the usual manner. lWhen the car 13 is loaded and run into the cage before dumping, these springs are com pressed. fitter the dumping operation when the car is unloaded, the springs on the car between the car body and trucks are consequently expanded with the result that the car body is higher than it was before the dumping operation when loaded. lt is obvious that it no provision was made for this rise of the car body, the hooks 19 would be held so tight after the car was unloaded by upward pressure or the car body caused by the springs 'on the car, thatthe sides of the car body might be injured and parts would become bound and make release of the hooks ditlicult. ln other words, the upward pressure of the springs on the car transmitted through the car body against the hooks 19 would pull upwardly so strongly on the rods 23 that the gear wheels 25 would be bound against their bearings to such an extent as to make rotation of them almost impossible by the releasing mechanism; and the pressure of the hoolis on the edges oi. the car body would be likely to cause injury. The spring 55 is provided to compensateior this upward movement ot the car body. The spring 55 has sufficient tension so that it will not be materially compressed when the hooks are brought down against the car body. lt will be noted that the rod 31 is operated by the counter sha-tt 42, which in turn is driven by thebelt a1 and connected to the motor 10. rllhe belt L11 is sutticiently loose or the motor L10 is made so small that when the hooks 19 engage the top of the ear body, the motor willbe stopped or the belt 41 will slip, before the spring 55 isv materially compressed. After the car is dumped, and the cage A returned to its normal upright position, the springs on the car will be expanded as stated before. This expansion of the springs on the car'will raise the car body, consequently raising the hoolrs 19 and compressing the spring 55. The spring is of suiiicient length, and there is suiiicient distance between the uppei end of the sleeve 57 and the collar 27 to permit full upward movement of the car body without bringing the upper end of the sleeve 57 into contact with the collar 27. It will be noted therefore that after the car body has thus risen, the only tension that will be on the rods 23 and the gear wheels 25 will be that caused by the springs 55. The springs 55 are light enough so that this tension will not bind or lo'c'k the gear wheels 25. It will be seen therefore that by this construction the springs 55 will permit the desired upward movement of the car body without locking or binding any of the parts. It will be noted that a relatively heavy spring 59 is provided'below the collar 55. The purpose of this spring is to take the weight of the car when the cage A is in an inverted position. When in such an inverted position, the weight of the car will rest on the hooks 19. This will cause rst complete compression of the springs 55, since they are relatively light and will bring-the ends of the sleeves 57 against the collars 27, thus preventingfurther compression of injury to the springs 55. After this the weight of the car will cause compression of the springs 59 which are heavy enough to take the weight of the car and support it resiliently, thus preventing injuryy to the parts by having so much weight supported upon them without interpositioning of the springs.

VVhile we have shown and described certain embodiments of our invention, it is to be understood that it is capable of many modifications. Changes therefore in the construction and arrangement may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as disclosed in the appended claims, in which it is our intention to claim all novelty inherent in our invention as broadly as possible in view of the prior art.

What we claim as new: 1. A car holding Vmechanism comprising a hook adapted to be moved from a raised position above a car body to a lowered position in engagement with a car body, operating means for moving the hook from its raised position to its lowered position, and

elastic means interposed between the hook and the operating means, said elastic means comprising a relatively stiif spring and a relatively wealr spring.

2. A car holding mechanism comprising a hook adapted to be moved from a raised position above a car body to a lowered position in engagement with a car body, operating means for moving the hook from its raised position to its lowered position, and elastic means interposed between the hook and the operating means, said elastic means comprising a relatively stiff spring and a relatively weak spring arranged in series.

3. A car holding mechanism comprising a hook adapted to be moved from a raised position above a car body to a lowered position in engagement with a car body, rod adapted for moving said hook, and spring means interposed between said rod and said hook, said spring means comprising a relatively weak spring and a relatively stili' spring.

4. A car holding mechanism comprising a hook adapted `to be moved from a raised position above a car body to a lowered position in engagement with a car body, a rod adapted for moving said hook, and spring means interposed between said rod and said hook, said spring means comprising a relatively wea-lr spring and a relatively stili spring arranged in series.

5. A car holding mechanism comprising hook adapted to be moved from a raised position above a car body to a lowered position in engagement with a car body, a rod adapted for moving said hook, and spring means interposed between said rod and said hook, said spring means comprising a relatively wealr spring and a relatively stiff spring on vsaid rod. 7

6. A car holding mechanism comprisinga hook adapted to be moved from a raised position above a car body to a lowered position in engagement with a car body, a rod adapted for moving said hook, and spring means interposed between said rod and said hook, said spring means comprising a relatively wealr spring and a relatively stili spring arranged in series on said rod.

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals this23 day of June, 1921.

GEORGE N. SIMPSON. [11s.] ARTHUR M. SIMPSON. [n s] 

